4 Places to Find Job Vacancies

Whether we’re a few weeks into looking for our first job or have been unemployed and searching for our next role for quite a while, it’s easy to fall into trap for only looking for vacancies in one place. Not only should we search for positions advertised through a diversity of media, we also need to understand we do not to have to apply to an advertisement to get a job. Approximately, only about 30% of jobs are advertised, so we’re really limiting ourselves by only looking for job openings that are made public. Here are some avenues into finding both advertised posts and openings that the wider public—including your rival job hunters—is not aware of.

Traditional Press

Contrary to popular belief, newspapers are not dead yet. The printed press is still alive and kicking and, also, the majority of newspapers are free to read online. Employers recognize this and therefore recognize that newspaper classifieds will still get plenty of traffic. Look at the job advertisements in your local paper or the career section of your online daily and you might be pleasantly surprised.

Internet Jobsites

Admittedly, online newspaper job boards are rivalled by independent job sites and job feeds. Although, you must be careful not to spend ages browsing these dedicated job boards only to apply for jobs that don’t match your skills, requirements or constraints, you can find some very interesting openings if you’re savvy about it. Use the advanced search function on a job site to narrow down the results to very specific vacancies according to your criteria.

Employers

This might seem like a strange one, but have you ever thought about just going straight to the organization you want to work for. If you have a specific company in mind, regularly check its corporate website for vacancies, as more and more businesses are now posting available vacancies on their own sites. Subscribe to the vacancy page RSS feed so you can easily access any updates on new vacancies. Alternatively, you don’t have to wait for your ideal vacancy to be advertised by the employer if you believe that there’s already an opening that you could fill right now. Send in a speculative application—but only after thoroughly researching the organisation and perhaps speaking to a representative on the ‘phone to ‘warm them up’ as opposed to cold-emailing them a CV.

Your Network

You may be surprised by who or what your existing contacts know. Think about all the professional and personal networks in your life—contacts you made at school, in university in previous workplaces, on voluntary placements, through friends and families, at social occasions and in the local community. You probably have a bigger network than you think. Ask those who know you well whether they can help you. If you know someone who’s in the industry or company you want to get into, call them up and arrange to go for a coffee with them. Having a chat with them may open some doors more easily than you might imagine. For more guidance on networking read through this 135 Networking Career Tips eBook.